Stadium proposals gaining ground

By Matthew T. Hall, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Originally published June 22, 2010 at 10:37 p.m., updated June 23, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

Qualcomm Stadium. Candlestick Park. Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum.
These have been the homes of California’s three National Football League teams for 40 years or more, among the oldest stadiums in the country.
Now their days may be numbered.
The San Diego City Council unanimously set aside $500,000 on Tuesday night to study downtown’s redevelopment future, a study that could make public money available for a new Chargers stadium near Petco Park within two years.
Two weeks ago, Santa Clara voters approved spending $114 million of public money to help build the San Francisco 49ers a $937 million stadium that team officials hope to occupy by 2014.
The deal allows the 49ers to bring a second team into the new venue the same way the New York Jets and Giants will share a new stadium beginning this season.
That kind of teamwork between the two Bay Area teams is something the NFL has encouraged, but the teams themselves are showing few signs of embracing the idea.
Oakland executives, whose lease is up in 2013, said after the Santa Clara vote that they preferred to build their own stadium on the site of their current one.
Yet in this economy, with construction financing difficult and the NFL fund to get stadiums built depleted, planning a stadium is as far from breaking ground as the hapless Detroit Lions are from the Super Bowl.
Chargers special counsel Mark Fabiani, who has spearheaded the team’s stadium search since 2002, called Tuesday’s San Diego City Council vote pivotal.
He called the “yes” vote a necessary step forward, but said a “no” vote would have been “a pretty clear message” — essentially a door closed in the Chargers’ face.
After years of looking elsewhere, Fabiani and Mayor Jerry Sanders support a 10-acre site downtown, bounded by 14th, 16th and K streets and Imperial Avenue. The stadium is estimated to cost up to $800 million, excluding the costs of finding a new home for a bus yard on site and cleaning up contamination once estimated to top $100 million.
The project may appear on a public ballot in 2012.
In an indication of how much money might flow through a ballot campaign in San Diego, the 49ers spent about $4 million in support of the Santa Clara stadium deal.
Top 49ers brass said construction could begin in 2012 and the stadium could host its first game in the 2014 season. But the move is far from certain because the team faces several hurdles, most significantly financing and the team’s record on such projects. In 1997, the 49ers won voter support for a deal that never materialized.
Sanders, Centre City Development Corp. Chairman Fred Maas and council members Todd Gloria and Donna Frye all made the point that Tuesday’s vote had no direct bearing on the Chargers’ search for a new stadium. The council approved a study of whether downtown meets the criteria for an extension of its redevelopment plans.
Mayoral aide Phil Roth noted, “The study you’re approving today could enable you 12 to 18 months from now to add a financial tool to your capabilities. That tool could be used to finance all sorts of different projects, hundreds of miles of sidewalks, all affordable housing, a stadium, a zoo, whatever you would like to do.”
As a result of Tuesday’s vote, a series of consultants will be paid about $500,000 to study what blight remains downtown in a first step toward securing the approvals to spend more money — largely in the form of property tax revenues spurred by redevelopment.
That would make more money available for a range of projects, as Roth suggested, from sidewalks to stadiums.
Elsewhere, billionaire Ed Roski Jr. is still trying to return professional football to the Los Angeles area.
Last year, he secured all the approvals to build an $800 million stadium in City of Industry and indicated he might pursue the Chargers, 49ers, Raiders, St. Louis Rams, Buffalo Bills, Jacksonville Jaguars or Minnesota Vikings.
In January, a Roski executive said the focus would be the Jaguars and Bills, but both teams have since expressed desires to stay where they are.
Now comes word that Roski has hired veteran public relations consultant Ben Porritt, spokesman for John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. The move comes as Roski’s stadium plan faces stiff regional competition.
Tim Leiweke, president and CEO of AEG, which owns the Staples Center, where the Lakers and Clippers play professional basketball, began discussing building a $1 billion NFL stadium next door in April.

Tailgating in a parking lot by the stadium may be still be a possibilty but there will a huge drop off in the parking spots available for a good game day Tailgate. You can still Tailgate at Petco but there are few spots compared to The Q. I say if there is a will there is a way. This may take some time but it will happen somehow somewhere someway!!!

There is a lot of wasted land in SD. Just look at how much land is occupied by Camp Pendleton and Miramar, that is nothing but over grown vegetation.

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That overgrown vegetation is what makes San Diego San Diego. Without it, we'd be nothing more than a smaller LA. I watched this town butcher Mission Valley. Escondido's unused industrial parks are a fine option, but downtown is also a fine prospect. We need to preserve those open spaces. Period. Anyone who says different is a moron. Or an idiot. But then I have broached the difference before.